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Category Archives: Blog
My, What Trellises You Have
A question came in this week to Ask Gardenerd:
“I was cycling in Silverlake and saw your garden you’ve setup for a greyish building! It looked great! I was especially intrigued by the interesting bean & tomato trellises you have. I
know this is technically “consulting”, but where can I get my hands on some of those for my garden?”
You must mean the Dream Center Garden that I’ve been working on for over a year now. We
planted 24 tomatoes and nearly 100 peas in just …
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Field Trip – San Francisco Garden Show
Question: What’s more fun than planting your spring garden?
Answer: Going to a garden show filled with gardeners and garden gear to get new ideas about what to plant in your spring garden.
I ventured up to San Francisco last week to take in a convention-center-full of ideas and gardening joys. To my delight, there was a clear focus on edible landscaping and home food-gardening that
offered fresh insight for home growers. A few favorites jumped out, so let’s get right to it:
Romantic Notions of Roasted Vegetables
In my early years of cooking, I found that my attempts at roasting vegetables ended with deflated, soggy lumps that once resembled fresh veggies. Perhaps that is why I still hold romantic notions
about serving amazingly caramelized, oven-roasted, Mediterranean fare cooked to perfection at elegant parties.
Well, it may not have been an elegant party – just a thrown-together dinner for two based on this romantic notion – but success was finally achieved in the roasted vegetable department.
First, the old stand-by – baked/roasted home grown potatoes: …
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Bamboo Insanity
Oh, the trouble with bamboo… here’s a question that came in this week on the subject: “I attended a class of yours a few years ago. Since then, we had a planter built in my yard out of railroad ties. … Continue reading
Preparing for Blight
A question came into Ask Gardenerd this week, which brought back memories of our sad summer last year:
“I have some kind of blight that returns to my tomatoes every year. One tomato that survived and re-sprouted after a severe cutting back was the first to develop it this year. I had to remove it
and trash the foliage. Do you have any idea what this is, and what I need to do to prevent it?”
Arg, blight. It’s such a nuisance, isn’t it? First off, you did …
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Posted in Sage Advice
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Keeping Cucurbits “Cloche” By
Maybe I’m a little anxious. Maybe I’m just ahead of the game. Really, though, I think I’m just excited about the coming of spring to the point that I can’t hold it in any longer. See, I planted
squash and cucumbers – I KNOW, I know… it’s early… I can’t help it. It may still be blustery and chilly out there, but I’ve got a plan to make everything alright:
Cloches – home made cloches – will keep my cucurbits happy until the weather warms up.
Dream Center Garden Progress
In September 2009, I started working on a project for the Dream Center in
downtown Los Angeles. It’s been a long road, gathering grant money and donated supplies, but the Dream Garden is shaping up to be a fine reality for the residents of the Dream Center.
Today a team of about 15 people planted the first batch of transplants into the garden. The excitement was palpable as we placed plants in each bed, according to a diagram I made …
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When to Pick an Avocado
This week a question came in from a student at my Santa Monica College class:
“I am wondering what is the best time (or how do I know when) to pick an avocado [off a tree]. Thanks and I really learned a whole bunch in your class! Best, John”
Now I confess, I told John to send his question in to Ask Gardenerd because I didn’t know the answer. We joke around here at Gardenerd that if I can’t …
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Phytoremediation Update – Sad News
I’m supposed to be a garden guru with a bountiful garden year-round, right? When crops fail or disease sets in, my husband is thoughtful enough to remind me that a true gardener’s approach to
gardening is experimentation, and more specifically trial and error. So in the spirit of true gardening, I present my latest error.
You may remember that I spent the winter growing milk thistle and
chicory in my community garden plot to remove some excess zinc from the soil. Included in the results from the initial soil …
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Cabbage Moths – Pretty but Dastardly
They’re coming. In fact, they’re already here. The seemingly beautiful white butterflies that hover delicately over your kale plants might appear to be innocent, but in reality they can wreak havoc
on your brassicas if left unchecked.
They’ll flutter around looking for a nice place to land, then disappear underneath the leaves of your treasured broccoli and cabbages. When they emerge, they will have laid dozens of eggs on the
underside of the leaves that are so tiny they are almost invisible to the human eye. Almost, but not to the trained …
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